Akron Art Library

About the Artist

Butch Anthony is a self-taught artist, builder and picker of things. As a teen, Anthony discovered a dinosaur bone in a creek. This earned him a scholarship to Auburn University, where he studied zoology and geology. While in college, Anthony enrolled in a comparative anatomy class that laid a foundation for his use of veins and bones in his current work.

In Birds of the World, the artist brings new life to an antique portrait by superimposing bone imagery and text. This method of arranging and overlaying is called “intertwangleism,” a term created by Anthony. The figure in this works looks like an X-ray, almost like you can look through the layer of outer appearance and into his essence. This might be because Anthony aims to break people down to their “primordial beginnings.” So what might he be saying about humans and birds?

To view more of Butch Anthony’s intertwangled portraits, visit the Akron Art Museum. Anthony also maintains his own Museum of Wonder, as well as a drive-through gallery in Seale Alabama.